et non sapientior

Should we not allow Mel Brooks and Richard Pryor to run for public office?
The MSM has been all a-twitter about what George Allen did or did not say whilst at the University of Virginia in the 70s, and the blogs have been following this frankly ridiculous story.
Yes, ridiculous. It disgusts me to no end how all these people are primping and parading around saying “Ooh golly, I never said that word with these sainted lips!”. Oh bullshit. I was born in 1964, and everyone said it at some point. To our society’s great credit as the 60s became the 70s became the 80s people gained awareness of such casual racism and people who used it were mostly quietly shunned, and those who used it and meant it in its full derogatory nature more and more likely to be openly and publically shunned and dressed down. That’s called progress, folks, and it’s a good thing. Social change does not happen overnight, and frankly the change that I’ve seen in my lifetime over how minorities are treated by people in everyday life in our country is one of the things I’m proudest of as an American.
And I include myself in that change, as I certainly used all types of racial epithets growing up, as did everyone of my peers, in everyday normal conversation (to set the record straight, I’ve also jaywalked, smoked pot and run several red lights). But then the strangest thing happened: I grew up, as did my society. What was ok to casually say in 1972 was bound to cause some embarrassed looks by 1982 and would certainly cause problems by 1990 because people had learned that it was false in their hearts, regardless of its status legally; this change in social mores is far more important than any law could ever be.
I attended the University of Virginia in the early 80s, roughly a decade behind the folks embroiled above, and I certainly heard the word used by both blacks and whites, but I have to say that even by then most times the context was more Blazing Saddles than David Duke.
It’s only a word, folks. A hateful word. A word that reminds us of the worst in ourselves and our country’s past. Perhaps it should remind us of how far we’ve come from that shameful past.
Oh, I’m certainly not saying we should just casually toss it about (although any quick listen to the music blasting from many cars these days would lead one to assume that that is indeed the case), but for its useage thirty some-odd years ago to become a major issue in a political campaign without any indication of its relevance to Allen’s current views seems rather assinine, at the very least. And for his attackers to piously claim never to have uttered it is beyond belief.

I would also argue it’s not his attitude since but his actions. Whatever his sins, real or otherwise, has he evolved in the thirty years since? There has to be redemption in virtuous acts, or we’re all f*cked.
And for the record, I’m allergic to da ganja weed, so Bingley wasn’t following my ‘older sister’ example during his slide into crackheadism.

And for the pissy record ~ the word I’ve never used and maybe Sen Allen did is a far cry from a white hood on your head and no one is beating up that aged blowhard extortionist from WV about it. How many years ago was that now?

Beh, I could have been clearer.
I can understand him feeling that way; it is…uncomfortable to hear the movie now. Funny as hell, mind you, but uncomfortable to listen to, which I imagine was Brooks’ and Pryor’s purpose: make us face it upfront.